TUSCALOOSA, Alabama – This season, Nick Saban is seeking his third consecutive national championship, his fourth in the past five years at Alabama and his fifth overall, including one at LSU.

The head football coach seems to know what he is doing.

But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have critics.

One of them is Danny Sheridan. The national analyst has made the Crimson Tide a 1:2 favorite to repeat as the Southeastern Conference champion and a 3:1 favorite to three-peat as the national champ.

But. …

“It all depends on AJ not getting injured,” Sheridan said, referring to fifth-year senior quarterback AJ McCarron, who will be a third-year starter this fall. “Which brings me to my age-old question.”

With that, Sheridan launched into his one and only peeve with Saban.

“The only criticism I could ever give him as a coach would be, ‘Why don’t you ever play two quarterbacks?’” Sheridan asked one day this week. “‘Why don’t you give your second quarterback mop-up duty when you’re winning 28-0 at halftime? Why don’t you put him in with the first unit when the game matters?

“Ever since he’s been there, Alabama has had no back-up quarterback, and the fault is his. It hasn’t hurt him because McCarron hasn’t gotten injured. What happens if McCarron goes down?”

Alabama Coach Nick Saban watches as quarterback AJ McCarron is helped off the field after being injured at Faurot Field in Columbia, Mo., Saturday, Oct. 13, 2012. McCarron soon was back in the game. (Mark Almond/ malmond@al.com)

It’s a sobering thought for a team that has no other weaknesses, according to Sheridan.

“If I were going to grade Saban, I would give him an A-plus – not just an A – in every other category, and I felt that way when he got hired,” said Sheridan, a Mobile native whose line is published in USA Today.

“However, he gets a D-minus in bringing along second-string quarterbacks. He just doesn’t get it.”

Veteran Blake Sims and redshirt freshman Alec Morris competed in the spring for the second-team quarterback spot, and that competition will continue in preseason camp. Sims has a little experience in backing up McCarron. So did Phillip Ely, but the third-year sophomore has transferred to Toledo. Morris has yet to take his first college snap.

Three freshmen – Cooper Bateman, Parker McCleod and invited walk-on Luke Del Rio – joined the team in the spring. Any of them could be challengers for the starting job in 2014.

“I’m sure they’re all talented, but they’ll all be inexperienced in 2014,” Sheridan said. “Saban has gotten away with playing one quarterback because he put together the best offensive line in the history of college football last year. The one this year is going to be almost as good.

“Saban’s gotten away with it because he’s never lost a starting quarterback (to injury). He also has had running backs that are All-Pro, and some of the receivers are All-Pro.”

McCarron beat out Parade All-American Phillip Sims for the starting quarterback position in 2011. Sims transferred to Virginia the following summer and recently left the team for academic reasons.

Blake Sims, a fourth-year junior, is a dual threat who appeared in 10 games last season but threw only 10 passes. He completed five for 77 yards. Ely appeared in six games and completed 3 of 4 passes for 42 yards and one touchdown.

“If I ever sit down one-on-one with Saban, that’s what I’m going to ask him: ‘Just educate me,’” Sheridan said. “I have a lot of coaching friends. Some of them have won national championships. They do things differently. …

“I’d tell him that they play three or four games a year where they beat the daylights out of teams. Georgia State, Chattanooga – they don’t even score on you. I would start the second quarterback and let him play the whole game. … But he’s not going to do that.